A cell phone is an example of a technology that relies on natural convective flow to provide cooling to the system. Shown in this image is a conformal polyhedral mesh , which provides the most accurate heat transfer across interfaces between parts.

For heat transfer and conjugate heat transfer simulations, STAR-CCM+ offers a wide range of models, including solar, multi-band and specular thermal radiation (discrete ordinates or surface-to-surface) models. Here, STAR-CCM+ was used to compute the temperatures at component level inside a router and assess the efficiency of the cooling system.

STAR-CCM+ is widely used to perform heat transfer and conjugate heat transfer simulations, such as the CPU cooling fan analysis shown here. Rigid body motion allows parts to rotate and/or translate with repect to each other, yielding time-accurate flow date that includes the effects of transient interactions between components.

For supercomputers with dozens of blades each with tens of CPUs, proper cooling at both the component and systems level must to be ensured. Shown are Isosurfaces of air temperature in a server room obtain through simulations with STAR-CCM+.

Avionics cooling with STAR-CCM+® showing the aft avionics bay of a Hunter UAV with air supplied through the aircraft environmental control system.

While engineers of previous generations were able to rely on a combination of engineering intuition and experience to design the cooling of their electronic systems, the ever-increasing consumer demands for greater performance in a smaller package, means this type of speculative prototyping is no-longer effective.

Reliance on intuition and trial-and-error prototyping to predict the cooling of complex electronic systems is a certain guarantee for bad results and failure, in addition to burgeoning design and development costs and time. This affects products by decreasing the profit margins, delaying product time to market and increasing product and repair cost. Most importantly, relying solely on physical testing limits the innovation that can be designed into the product.

In this increasingly competitive market place, only numerical simulation can provide the necessary insight into product performance early in the design process. Temperature is a very limiting factor for electronic devices and as devices move to higher power density, the higher temperatures reduce component efficiency and product life.

The need for more sophisticated and intelligent cooling strategies to keep up with rising demands can only be met by designing the electronic systems in an intelligent and sustainable manner using innovative technologies that can identify problems at an early stage. At CD-adapco, we understand this new reality for future electronics systems and have adapted our simulation solutions to offer the best-fit for electronics cooling design.

Our flagship software, STAR-CCM+, offers a no-compromise simulation solution for your Electronics Cooling problems. With STAR-CCM+, there is no simplification of geometry and any complex electronics circuit with its hundreds of components can be handled with ease. Most electronics simulation tools stop with Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) simulations, the most common physics handled in this area.

STAR-CCM+ offers industry leading conduction, convection and radiation modeling capabilities but doesn’t just stop there. Other advanced physics like liquid cooling which required multi-phase capabilities, fan performance and acoustics which can be handled by rotating machinery and aeroacoustics models, hydrogen build-up from battery decay, water intrusion and many more can be handled accurately and effectively within STAR-CCM+.

In short, STAR-CCM+ is a no-compromise simulation solution for the Electronics industry that can:

Handle complex geometries without simplification

Solve problems spanning multiple length scales

Solve problems including natural convection & radiation

Allows simulation of problems involving liquids and glasses and other advanced physics